Farriba has career game on historic night

Although Prince Avenue Christian wingback Rob Farriba sprinkled a couple of touchdown runs in his 215-yard rushing performance in last Friday’s 35-13 victory over Commerce, coach Mark Farriba said a seemingly routine run was his son’s most memorable play of the history-making night.

“He had a couple of good sweep runs, and the biggest one came in the third quarter when we got the kickoff and had to punt, and Commerce got the ball back and scored to cut it to 21-13,” said Mark Farriba, whose team posted its school-best eighth win of the season, clinched a home playoff berth, improved to 4-0 in Region 8-A and defeated the venerable Tigers for the first time.

“We got the ball back and had a pretty critical third-and-five near midfield and Rob ran a sweep and got a good, tough first down for us and kept that drive alive. To me, his biggest run of the night was getting the first down right there. We really needed a first down, to keep the ball and go right down and score then. It was a big first down for us.”

The younger Farriba is one of a small army of dangerous Prince Avenue playmakers, including quarterback Carl Mattox and running backs Hayden Lewis and Bryce Huff, and he’s delighted to be in such good company.

“It’s very exciting. One guy might not be having a great night but there are three other guys in the backfield that can definitely pull the weight if needed,” said Rob Farriba, who with his teammates will seek the clinch the school’s first region title at 7:30 p.m. Friday against Athens Christian (2-6, 2-2). “Everyone on offense trusts each other in the backfield and on the line, so we’ve just got a good chemistry going on with our offense.”

The 6-foot, 165-pound junior posted a season-high 21 carries against Commerce. the elder Farriba said he didn’t go into last Friday’s game thinking he’d call his son’s number so many times.

“When you run the wing-t, you can watch people on film from previous weeks but you never really know exactly how people are going to line up against your wing sets,” Mark Farriba said.

“So you go in with an idea, but as the game unfolds you see what’s going on and what their plan is. It just kind of fell Rob’s way Friday night. He had a good game. I really thought the George Walton game was really his best game, but I thought this was a very good performance as well. I was proud of him.”

For the season, Rob Farria has rushed 92 times for 775 yards, averaging 8.4 yards per carry and 97 yards per game, and has six running touchdowns

After sustaining an injury in the Wolverines’ big 21-10 victory over George Walton Academy on Oct. 7, Rob Farriba sat out Prince Avenue’s next game, a 48-0 drubbing of Social Circle. Although he understood the reasoning behind not playing, the younger Farriba thinks the week off may have increased his appetite for contact.

“I definitely did not like staying out of the game,” he said. “It made me hungry for the next week and I really looked forward to the next time we got out on the field together.”

“His best asset is he just runs hard, and he goes downhill pretty good,” Mark Farriba said. “He’s got good vision – he sees things pretty well. Those things have served him well.”

When Mark Farriba came to Prince Avenue in 2007, Rob Farriba was a middle-school student, so he’s got ground-floor experience with the swift progress of the Wolverines’ football program.

“I never thought it would be like this,” Rob Farriba said. “From middle school, watching the varsity play, I didn’t think we’d come this far in this time period. It’s been amazing to see what’s happened this season – it’s been unbelievable to me. It’s awesome.”